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Updated: May 2, 2025
For answer, Geoffrey burst into a torrent of blasphemy which made her shudder. He cursed Delandre and his sister and all their kind, and in especial he hurled curse after curse on her golden hair. 'Oh, hush! hush! she said, and was then silent, for she feared her husband when she saw the evil effect of his humour.
There was a lapse of nearly a year, after the excitement of the matter had worn away, and the whole neighbourhood had gone on its accustomed way. Brent was still absent, and Delandre more drunken, more morose, and more revengeful than before. Then there was a new excitement. Brent's Rock was being made ready for a new mistress.
At last Wykham Delandre settled down to a morose, vengeful acceptance of the situation. Neither Margaret nor Geoffrey was of a pacific temperament, and it was not long before there began to be quarrels between them. One thing would lead to another, and wine flowed freely at Brent's Rock.
So, little by little, the family dropped lower and lower, the men brooding and dissatisfied, and drinking themselves into the grave, the women drudging at home, or marrying beneath them or worse. In process of time all disappeared, leaving only two in the Croft, Wykham Delandre and his sister Margaret.
The Brents were accorded by the whole section of the country a unique social dominance, and had ever held themselves as high above the yeoman class to which Margaret Delandre belonged, as a blue-blooded Spanish hidalgo out-tops his peasant tenantry. The Delandres had an ancient record and were proud of it in their way as the Brents were of theirs.
Even his own servants never knew when to expect him, for there was a private door, of which he alone had the key, by which he sometimes entered without anyone in the house being aware of his coming. This was his usual method of appearing after a long absence. Wykham Delandre was furious at the news. He vowed vengeance and to keep his mind level with his passion drank deeper than ever.
Once or twice Delandre tried to stop Brent on the road, and, at last, finding that he could not attain his object rode after the carriage, calling out: 'What has become of my sister, your wife? Geoffrey lashed his horses into a gallop, and the other, seeing from his white face and from his wife's collapse almost into a faint that his object was attained, rode away with a scowl and a laugh.
That very evening she came into the hall after her drive and found him there sitting moodily by the deserted fireplace. She spoke to him directly. 'Geoffrey, I have been spoken to by that fellow Delandre, and he says horrible things.
When Margaret Delandre went to live at Brent's Rock the whole neighbourhood awoke to the pleasure of an entirely new scandal. Scandals in connection with either the Delandre family or the Brents of Brent's Rock, were not few; and if the secret history of the county had been written in full both names would have been found well represented.
Later on the body of the driver was found on the sandy, torrent-swept waste near Täsch; but the body of the lady, like that of the other horse, had quite disappeared, and was what was left of it by that time whirling amongst the eddies of the Rhone on its way down to the Lake of Geneva. Wykham Delandre made all the enquiries possible, but could not find any trace of the missing woman.
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